Rezension: The Politics of Language Education. Individuals and Institutions.

Charles Alderson is a renowned international expert on language testing and language policy. His most recent edited collection, however, focuses on the micropolitics of language education, and thus comes as a surprise. The author explains his interest in this topic in convincing terms: While macropolitics and education policies determine which languages are to be taught and how they are to be assessed, the actual reality of language education, of curricular change and innovation looks much more complex and is far more than a simple realization of educational objectives and standards developed on paper. Language policies, projects and programmes are, the author argues, filtered through the agendas of institutions and individuals and thus become enmeshed with micropolitics, i.e., conflicting or vested interests, power relations, needs and ambitions. These processes become even more complex in international cooperative ventures where neither side is fully conscious of the socio-cultural and political background and hence the agenda of the other.